Informations on zeus and apollo

[philo120]

Hi,

New french member and real magnum fan of course, but until now i never saw any detail on the dogs used in the episodes, i do think we ought them a few posts don't you think??
So if someone know anything about them...
P.

[golfmobile]

Bien venue, Philo!

Je parle francais un petit peu, un tres petit peu! Mais j'ai une dictionaire francais!

Je ne connais pas des chiens Zeus et Apollo. Peut-etre autres ici sont able a contributer l'information des chiens.

(C'est pauvre, n'est-ce pas?)

Pour les anglais, I welcomed Philo and told him I speak a VERY little French but have a French dictionary. I know nothing about Zeus and Apollo but perhaps others here are able to contribute to the discussion.

I'm sure the Frenchmen here are speaking a lot better English than I am speaking (attempting to speak) French!! (Renee, parlez-vous francais aussi?)

golfmobile

[Olivier]

Hi Philo,

Now we are 4 french on the forum.
I have no informations about Zeus and Apollo but sometimes when I look them I think it's sad they are dead now. But they left us good memories.

[Jean-Claude Fornier]

Hi all,
et bienvenue, Philo !

My thoughts : were Zeus and Apollo two dobermans played by two or more dogs looking like them ? Or be played by the same dogs but sometimes substituted by other dobermans during Magnum TV serie numerous seasons ?

For exemple, did you know that Lassie was played by 9 dogs at least looking like the first one (the first Lassie was father of these 9 dogs, BTW).
So, maybe Zeus or/and Apollo babies could have played the roles of their parents during the last seasons ?
Who knows ?

[Doc Ibold]

Hi Jean-Claude,

I can say for certainty that in one episode you can definitely tell either Zeus or Apollo was played by a female , because when they were jumping on whomever it was you could tell one dog had prononced nipples while the other did not.

It's plain because the shot in question is a side shot and the because the light hit both dogs on the chest creating a silhouette.

I WANT to say the episode in question in either season 5 or 6.

I would assume that multiple dogs, like Lassie, played the lads and that both of your scenarios could be the case.

It WOULD be interesting to get a list of the dogs who played Z and A and what became of them!

-Doc

[Kahunagirl]

I found this on tvacres.com:

Apollo & Zeus - Doberman pinscher guard dogs seen on the detective drama MAGNUM, P.I./CBS/1980-88. Apollo & Zeus lived at the mansion of novelist Robin Masters on the Island of Oahu. The dogs patrolled the perimeters of the estate and answered to the commands given by a stuffy British manservant Jonathan Quayle Higgins III (John Hillerman) who affectionately called the dogs "The Lads." Frequently the dogs went chasing after Thomas Magnum, a private investigator and live-in security guard for the estate. Apollo and Zeus' real names were Brutus and Dominique. They were trained by Scott Hart and earned $1,000 a week. When the producers tried to get look-alikes to save money (The dogs had to be flown in from Los Angeles), the series star Tom Selleck said "No!" He felt comfortable with those particular dogs chasing him and didn't want replacements.

But, I'm going to keep searching, because I know I've previously stumbled across another article that talks about a second pair of dogs that replaced the original pair sometime into the show's run.

Kahunagirl

[Vanity]

Salut Philo, welcome on board.
In have absolutely no more info on the lads than provided by Kahunagirl (mahalo for all this info), just wanted to wave the blue, white & red a little ;o)

[Kahunagirl]

Some more info about The Lads. I found the following on an Italian website (Google did the translation, not me!) ...

For animal lovers: Zeus and Apollo were interpreted by a trio of dobermann identical and interchangeable - Whiskey, Brutus and Dominique - all trained by Scott Hart.

From: www.mymovies.it/dizionario/recensione.asp?id=51687

I also found a thread on another message board where someone said that Larry Manetti had mentioned that a couple of sets of dogs were used. Maybe this is mentioned in his Aloha, Magnum book, if anyone happens to have a copy?

Kahunagirl

[IslandHopper]

You are right Kahunagirl. In his book, Larry Manetti said that for the first half of the first season, three local dogs were used. Two female dogs named Cola and Nohea, and one male named Joe. Their trainer apparently left and Scott Hart was eventually hired for the second half of the first season.

At the beginning of the second year, the producers had Scott Hart bring his own dogs from the mainland, and they were two males and one female. The two males were Whiskey and Brutus and the female was Dominique. The dogs lived to about 14.

At the beginning of the fourth season, Scott Hart was told that the dogs were being written out of the script in order to save costs. However, the "Lads" were saved by Tom Selleck and John Hillerman. Can you imagine MPI without the Lads? Somehow, it just wouldn't be the same.

[philo120]

Thanks guys for your details, happy to be part of such a group of fans!!!
And golfmobile, your french is quite correct except dictionary is male gender so it is "un dictionaire"